Rum.Gold is the alias of Delonte Drumgold, a progressive R&B artist whose softly affecting vocals suit his intimate writing and favoring of nuanced, layered productions. The Brooklyn-based Drumgold released his first EP in 2019, and the next year attracted more attention with Aimless, an EP highlighted by the Jamila Woods collaboration “Waiting For.” The pensive Thicker Than Water marked his full-length debut in 2021, and it was followed in 2023 by U Street Anthology, an LP shaped by Drumgold’s reckoning with his adoption and reflections on his upbringing in and around Washington, D.C. Is There Anybody Home?, his third album, appeared in 2026.

Born in D.C., Drumgold sang in church, and later took up trumpet, which he played in his high school jazz band. This led him to Berklee College of Music, where he earned a degree in music business management and marketing. Based in Brooklyn after college, Drumgold began recording and uploading tracks to Soundcloud, and eventually took the name Rum.Gold. With help from fellow singer/songwriter and producer James Chatburn, he put together an EP entitled Yarn, released in 2019. For Aimless, an EP issued the next year, Drumgold worked with Chatburn and George Moore, as well as Jamila Woods, with whom he duetted on “Waiting For.” Thicker Than Water, his first album, followed in 2021, and though it involved input from a considerably greater number of associates, its biggest songs, “Human” and “Thankful,” were produced respectively by Chatburn and Drumgold.

During the making of Thicker Than Water, Drumgold learned that he had been adopted. Through his birth certificate, he found his biological mother, and he and she eventually met at the church where she was serving as minister. The revelation, along with additional complicated feelings toward his hometown, greatly informed U Street Anthology, his second album, released in 2023. The intimate set was brought to fruition with help from George Moore, Rahm Silverglade, Frankie Scoca, and especially Josh Grant, who worked on over half of the songs. Mereba was featured on “Water My Heart,” while Kiah Victoria joined Drumgold on another romantic ballad, “Forget Me.” Within a year and a half of U Street Anthology’s release, Drumgold began previewing his next LP with “Is It Something I Said.” That song, along with a handful that followed into late 2025, appeared on Is There Anybody Home?, issued in March 2026. – Biography by Andy Kellman